Device for raising sunken vessels.



No. 689,43l. Patented Dec. 24, IBM.

B. TATTU DEVICE FOR RAISING SUNKEN VESSELS.

(Application filed Feb. 19, 1901.)

(No Modal.)

UNITED STATES IATENT RADU TATTU, OF TRENTON, NEW JERSEY.

DEVICE FOR RAISING SUNKEN VESSELS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 689,431, dat d De emb 24:, 1901.

Application filed February 19, 1901. Serial No. 47,968. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern.-

Be it known that I, RADU TATTU, a citizen of the United States, residing at No. 218 North Montgomery street, Trenton, New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Devices for Raising Sunken Objects, of which the followingis aspecification.

My invention relates to a new and useful improvement in devices for raising sunken vessels, floating dry-docks, and the like, and has for its object to so construct devices of this description as to provide for their ready application either to vessels or dry'docks or similar objects to be floated and the expanding of the same, so as to cause the devices to become inflated, thereby increasing their buoyancy, whereby the object aimed at is attained.

With these ends in view this invention consists in the details of construction and combination :of elements hereinafter set forth,

and then specifically designated by the claims.

In order that those skilled in the art to which this invention appertains may understand how to make and use the same,the construction and operation will now be described in detail, referring to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of th s specification, in which- Figure 1 is a vertical section of one of my devices, showing the screw form expanding and collapsing the same and the tube for permitting the ingress and egress of air to and from the device; Fig. 2, a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the device collapsed, and Fig. 3 a section showing a spiral spring arranged within the device for supporting the walls thereof.

In carrying out my invention as here embodied, A and A represent the two heads of the device, the former being threaded upon the screw-rod B, while the lower end of said rod is journaled, as indicated at C, in the head A. The two heads are connected together bya flexible or collapsible body D, the walls of which are supported from the interior by the rings E. A rubber tube is secured in the head A and communicates with the interior of the device, while its upper end is attached to a float G in such manner as to give it free access to the atmosphere without permitting the water to enter this upper end.

By this arrangement the device may be collapsed, as shown in Fig. 2, by the proper manipulation ofthe screw-rod through the crank H and may then be submerged and secured to the object which is to be floated by screws, as indicated at I, or in any other suitable manner, after which the expanding of the device by the reverse operation of the screwrod will cause it to fill with air through the tube F, and thus so increase its buoyancy as to give a strong upward pull upon the object to which it is attached.

Of course the devices may be made of various sizes, and where there is an exceedingly large object to be floated, such-as a vessel or dry-dock, a large number may be attached thereto, and thus the desired buoyancy acquired.

In Fig. 3 the walls of the body D are supported upon the interior by the spiral spring J, so arranged as to be compressed with the downward movement of the head A toward the head A The devices are in allother respects the same.

Of course various forms of these devices might be made embodying the same principle here set forth without departing from the spirit of my invention.-

Having thus fully'described my invention, what I claim as new and useful is- 1. In a device of the character described,

two heads, a flexible tube connecting said heads, a threaded rod so arranged as to move one of the heads to or from the other, and a tube connecting theinterior of the device with the atmosphere, as and-for the purpose set forth.

2. In a device of the character described, a stationary and a movable head, a collapsible body connecting said heads, a threaded a crank carried by the upper end of the rod for operating the same, a tube connecting the interior of the device with the atmosphere, and a float for supporting the upper end of In testimony whereof I have hereunto affixed my signature in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

RADU TATTU.

the tube above the surface of the water in I Witnesses: which the device may be submerged, asspeci- MARY E. HAMER, fied. L. W. MORRISON. 

